Statesmen Take Three During Busy Weekend
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Jacksonville, Ill. / Kokomo, Ind.–The William Penn baseball team hit up two states as it played five non-conference games in an action-packed weekend.
WPU (4-5) opened the weekend by splitting Friday’s twinbill with Hannibal-LaGrange, falling 8-7 and winning 10-3. The Statesmen then defeated Shawnee State 6-5 in Saturday’s lone contest before splitting another double dip with SSU Sunday, falling 5-2 and winning 19-5.
Hannibal-LaGrange 8, WPU 7
William Penn jumped out to a 6-1 edge after two innings, but the Trojans chipped away and made it 6-5 entering the bottom of the fifth. Tanner Hamblin (So., Salem, Utah, Undecided) highlighted the first with a three-run home run, while Nathan Ball (Jr., Moses Lake, Wash., Psychology) had the biggest hit of the second with a run-scoring triple.
The navy and gold, who were outhit 12-8, added one more tally in the fifth on an RBI single by Julian Villegas (Sr., Wilmington, Calif., Sociology). Unfortunately, H-LG closed strong with one run in the sixth and the tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh to cap the come-from-behind win.
Villegas, who also had with two RBIs, and Hamblin, both finished 2-for-4. D.J. Milam (Sr., Lancaster, Calif., Business Management) struck out four against two walks in the start.
WPU 10, Hannibal-LaGrange 3
The Statesmen also started well in the nightcap with two runs in the first and five more in the third. The squad could have done even more damage out of the gates, but left the bases loaded in the first (tallied five hits in the frame). Hamblin kept his power game going with a lead-off homer in the third (he now has three roundtrippers this year), while Worcester cleared the bases with a triple.
The squad’s eighth run came across in the fourth and then WPU put the cherry on top in the seventh with two more. William Penn posted a 13-5 mark in hits with Jimmy Blake (Jr., Seffner, Fla., Sports Management) leading the charge by going 3-for-4. Ball and Seth Reisbeck (Jr., Meridian, Idaho, History/Government) were each 2-for-4, while Nick Worcester (So., Bloomingdale, Ill., Physical Education) ended up with three RBIs and Isaiah Almanza (Jr., Deming, N.M., Exercise Science) had two more. Almanza, RaHeim Hampton (Jr., Richfield, Minn., Elementary Education), and Matt Rhodes (Fr., Des Moines, Iowa, Business Management) all crossed home plate twice in the triumph.
Augie Voight (Jr., Waukegan, Ill., Secondary Education) controlled the matchup, striking out four (one walk) in a complete-game outing. Only one of the runs against him was earned.
WPU overcame three fielding errors.
WPU 6, Shawnee State 5
In the weekend’s only nine-inning game, the Statesmen hung on to drop the Bears. Four runs were produced in the third with Villegas managing the biggest base knock with a run-scoring double.
SSU cut the margin in half with two in the fifth, but WPU pushed it back to four at 6-2 with a run in both the seventh and eighth innings. The difference-making run came on a suicide-squeeze bunt by Worcester to plate Fabio Espinosa (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Wellness and Recreation). The Bears made it interesting with three in the bottom of the eighth, but could not plate the tying run.
An 11-10 hitting edge was secured by the victors with Ball, Villegas, Reisbeck, and Hampton all tallying two base knocks apiece. Ball rounded the pads twice Saturday.
Three Statesmen pitchers combined to lift the Statesmen to victory. Starter Nick Bruns (Jr., Frankfort, Ill., Sports Management) worked 4 2/3 innings with two strikeouts, while Tom Przekwas (Jr., Chicago, Ill., Sports Management), who earned the win, had one strikeout in three frames. Reisbeck collected the save by tallying a trio of K’s in 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
Shawnee State 5, WPU 2
The lowest-scoring contest of the weekend witnessed WPU being outhit 9-3. WPU got on the board first courtesy of a Worcester triple in the second, but Shawnee State responded with five unanswered runs in the middle innings.
The navy and gold threatened in the seventh, but could only come up with one run.
Wilson Lorenzo (So., Fort Myers, Fla., Computer Science) had an interesting start with six strikeouts and four walks in five innings of work.
WPU 19, Shawnee State 5
The bats came alive to close out the weekend as WPU doubled up SSU 18-9 in hits. Speaking of doubles, the winning crew tallied seven extra-base hits with six doubles and a triple.
William Penn fell behind early as SSU put four on the scoreboard in the second. The Statesmen answered right back, however, with three in the third and five more in the fourth. They then ran away with the win by blowing up for seven sixth-inning runs and four seventh-frame tallies.
Ball, Reisbeck, and Cael Lambe (Fr., Dysart, Iowa, Sports Management) guided WPU with three hits each, while Hamlin added two more; all nine starters had a hit in the nightcap. Hamblin and Lambe finished with three RBIs, while five of their teammates had two RBIs apiece. Reisbeck, Lambe, and Rhodes all rounded the pads three times as well, and Ball and Villegas did so twice.
Austin Neff (Sr., Hanna City, Ill., Psychology) was good for three strikeouts in six innings, while Hamblin sent another batter to the bench on strikes in his one frame of relief.
Next Up: William Penn travels to Moore, Okla. next Thursday to face Randall in a non-conference doubleheader at noon.
